Carcer City is a city used in Manhunt, a non-GTA Rockstar game which involves a mass murderer named James Earl Cash. Carcer City is an industrial town with a corrupt police chief (Gary Schafer) and a snuff film director who apparently calls the shots in town. There are white supremacists, murderers, and other sorts of criminals and rogues who rampage through the streets of the city. Carcer City is most likely based off Newark, Detroit, Philadelphia or Cleveland. Most likely Newark due to its closeness to New York City which Liberty City is based on.
As appeared in the game, Carcer City has an asylum, a shopping mall (now derelict), an abandoned zoo, a junkyard and a subway. It is mused that Carcer City would exist in the same fictional world as the GTA games, like Bullworth, because of overlaps and references within them. According to a news segment from Grand Theft Auto III, Carcer City is "nearby" to Liberty City.
Residents and Places
- Lionel Starkweather, a.k.a. The Director - The purported ruler of Carcer City. He owns the police and makes many snuff films, in which the murders are real, in the city.
- Gary Schaffer - The crooked Police chief of Carcer City. He is paid by Starkweather and often takes bribes. He is first mentioned in Grand Theft Auto III for being cleared of charges of corruption, but all of the witnesses in the case have gone missing. Many residents believe he is truly guilty, but he and Starkweather control the courts in Carcer City.
The following are many of the popular locations in Carcer City.
- Carcer Zoo : Formerly a perfect place to make a trip with your family, it used to feature over a hundred different animals from all over the world, and is located in the heart of the city. Lately it had been ruled by gangs and all the animals have escaped. It is thought it is used by gangs as a hideout and a home for the city's worst thugs.
- Darkwoods Penitentiary: Formerly a large mental asylum. The inmates have all escaped and formed their own psychopathic gang "The Smilies". The asylum being their only turf.
References from Grand Theft Auto
- A news segment on the in-game radio station Lips 106 reports that "police chief Gary Schaeffer was cleared of corruption charges in a controversial decision by the courts." This is an obvious allusion to a prominent character in this game. This shows that the police chief has been corrupt for two years (or more) before the events of Manhunt (most likely due to him dealing with Starkweather). The same news segment mentions Carcer City as being "nearby" to Liberty City.
- There is also a "Ghost Town" in Liberty City, which is sometimes erroneously dubbed Carcer City.
- A few mailboxes have a letter in front of it saying it is from Carcer City.
- A mattress store has a poster that reads, "The Best Mattresses in Carcer".
- A radio advertisement for Carcer City makes references to steel mills being closed and "dining in the glow of the Flaming River," which may be the best indication of the city's inspiration. Many steel mills in the Midwest closed during the era when the game was set, including those in Pittsburgh, PA, Philadelphia, PA, Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, MI. The "Flaming River" is a clear reference to the "Burning River", a period in the 1970s where the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio was polluted enough that it caught fire.
- There are blue propane tanks with "Carcer Gas!" on them.
- A woman calls into "The Wild Traveller" show on WCTR, mentioning that she is from Carcer City.
- When bumped into, a pedestrian says "Hey! This isn't Carcer City OKAY!"
- On the shores of Palomino Creek, north of Los Santos, there are several large, wooden, spool-shaped objects with the words (almost indistinguishably) "Jartnuk Cable Company" and "Carcer" on them.
- In Zero's RC store, there is an action figure of James Earl Cash, along with Piggsy, Tommy Vercetti and Lance Vance.
- One pedestrian is noted to say (after CJ murders somebody) "I'm moving to Carcer City".
- In the first cutscene at the airport, it is seen on the arrivals board that one flight is from Carcer City.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
- A man named Ken calls "The Electron Zone" on LCFR (asking about the Internet) and states that he is "calling from Carcer City."
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
- Various pedestrians claim to have previous occupations in Carcer City; some say, "I was a plumber in Carcer City!".
- While searching the police database, some of the characters listed are born in Carcer City.
- A pedestrian says "You drive like you're from Carcer City" if he is nearly run over.
- "Liberty City to Carcer City" is a distance the game can indicate in the 'Distance Traveled' statistic. As a relatively lower level title in the overall statistic, it is listed before "Liberty City to the Capital", if that is any indication.
Miscellaneous
- There are a few vehicles seen in Carcer City. The Stallion makes a cameo appearance as a burnt out wreck, whereas the Virgo appears as a picture in Starkweather's mansion. The large police vans located throughout Manhunt, where the protagonist can pry open the back doors to get goodies, closely resemble the moving vans known as Boxvilles from the GTA III era games. Also, the box truck with its lights beaming on during some levels in Manhunt somewhat resembles the Yankee from the GTA III era games. The hollowed- out, roofless, rusted shells of cars found in the GTA III era games which resemble an Idaho from GTA III (In San Andreas seen in the ghettos of Los Santos and in the Scrapyard of the countryside area) can be found widely around the junkyard in Manhunt.
Etymology
The Latin word carcere, which means prison, is also apparent in the word carceral state, which means: a state modeled on a prison. It is also apparent in 'incarcerate', meaning; to imprison.
In geomancy, Carcer is one of the seven figures of Western Geomancy. It is the figurative outline of an enclosure or prison cell (similar to the word carcere).